Mobile Learning Reflections

This is an aggregate of blog posts written about integrating mobile learning into the classroom.

Mobile Learning
Jackie Gerstein, Ed. D.
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on January 3, 2012
Contents
Mobile Learning: Learners As Informed Consumers, Creative
Producers, and Active Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Team and Community Building Using Mobile Devices . . . . .
Facilitating Learner Voice and Presence in the Classroom Using
Mobile Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
An Instructional Activity: Student-Produced Viral Videos . . . .
Using Mobile Devices and Technology to Enhance Emotional
Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
An Experiential, Mobile-Device Driven Communications Exercise
A Texting Communications Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Own Mobile Devices and Celly Provide Peer Feedback
Flipped Classroom Full Picture: An Example Lesson . . . . . .
Every Educator Has a Story . . . Just Tell It. . . . . . . . . . . .
Win As Much As You Can Mobile Edition . . . . . . . . . . . .
A Technology-Enhanced Lesson on Conflict . . . . . . . . . . .
A End-of-Course Student Survey: The Use of Mobile Devices
for Class Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Mobile Learning: Learners As Informed
Consumers, Creative Producers, and
Active Participants
Children and young people are using their own mobile devices – Pods,
iPads, netbooks, laptops, and smart phones – to be consumers and producers
of digital content, and to be active participants in online communities. They
are doing so as part of their day-to-day lives outside of school as leisure time
activities. They are familiar and comfortable with social networking and
using a variety of apps via their devices. The 2010 Nielsen’s Teen Mobile Reportreported that “94% percent of teen subscribers self-identify as
advanced data users, turning to their cellphones for messaging, Internet,
multimedia, gaming, and other activities like downloads.”
When educators leverage this informal learning by giving agency to the
students to use their mobile technologies AND by providing the structure
and skills for their use within more formal educational settings, motivation
and learning is increased. (Learn more about Agency and Structure, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structure_and_agency .) By bringing these
experiences into the classroom, consumption of content becomes more informed, production of online content more creative, and participation as
global citizens more active and directed.
Informed Consumers. Learners are consuming real time and constant news
with Google, Twitter, Facebook, and other newsfeeds via their mobile devices. In more formal learning environments, learners can be given the
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agency to access this information and provided with the skills to make informed and critical decisions as to its relevance, efficacy, and credibility.
Creative Producers. Young people are taking pictures and creating video
using their mobile devices. Pulling out mobile devices during real world
photo-ops is commonplace. Although many young people have the desire
to produce media that is creative, attention-grabbing, and has high production value, many lack the knowledge and where-with-all to do so. When
this desire to produce media enters into a mobile learning environment, the
education setting can provide a combination the right instruction; and apps
for planning, filming and editing. Learners-as-producers not only increases
the potential for creative and higher quality media, but also additional avenues for them to develop and showcase their content-related learnings.
Active Participants. Mobile technologies have provided digital access to
many who do not have access via computers and in-home Internet. This
includes lower SES individuals from developed countries as well as those
in third world countries. This anytime, anywhere, and with almost anyone
capability makes mobile learning ripe for collaborating globally and developing global stewardship. It levels the educational landscape permitting
communication and collaboration between diverse groups of learners.
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Team and Community Building Using
Mobile Devices
Cell phones today allow users to do so much more than just
a few years ago. Students can use their cell phones to write
and send text messages, take and send digital photos, and
even take and send short digital video clips, in addition to
making phone calls. http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/ ←howtoarticles/cell−phones−in−the−classroom\\
As such, mobile devices provide great opportunities for learning. One
such use is for team and community building. What follows is a list of
smartphone-based, community-building activities.
About Me
Ask participants to locate a photo, song, or video from their mobile
device that best represents them.
Each person then shares his or her media and the reason it was
selected.
Bringing portable speakers can assist with the sharing of songs so
others can hear them.
Source: Jackie Gerstein
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Playlists
• Prior to the activity, create a list of at least 10 categories of playlists.
Possible categories include pop music, boy band music, country music, holiday music, bits of TV or movie dialogue, classical music,
college fight songs, love songs, TV or movie theme music, and cartoon character voices.
• For the activity itself, have participants form teams of about 10 members each, then ask all participants to make sure that their cell phones
are turned on. Next, tell them that you are going to call out a playlist
category. If they have this style of ringtone in their phone, they have
to find it, hold up their phone, and play the appropriate ringtone (or
music) for everyone.
• Points awarded to groups based on how many in group can ”play” the
sound.
• Example List
– Boy band
– Girl band
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– Love song
– TV or Movie tune
– Cartoon or movie Voice
– Voice of significant other
– A phone ring
– Your own voice
• Source:http://www.humankinetics.com/products/all−products/ ←Team−Building−Activities−for−the−Digital−Age−eBook
Categories – Do you have?
• Form students in small groups.
• Ask them to find a picture on their mobiles that contains (just one per
group to get a point)
– Pet
– Grandparents
– Something in Nature
– Person doing a sport’s activity
– A group of friends
• Source: http://www.humankinetics.com/products/all−products/ ←Team−Building−Activities−for−the−Digital−Age−eBook
• Alternative – ask each small group to assign one person to take digital
photos during some of the small group activities (e.g., team-building
activities). This person should be told nothing but to get a visual
record of the group during the activities. After the a number of group
activities, this activity can be conducted.
• Call out the following. If the the photographer for that small group
has that image, then they get a point.
– Picture of someone with the GPS
– A Group Shot
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– A close up of someone concentrating
– A close up of someone smiling
– Someone helping another person
– A picture with hands
• Source – Jackie Gerstein
Spot the Eyes
• In small groups, ask group members to take close ups of one another’s
eyes.
• Show the entire group the pics using the LCD – other group members
guess whose eyes they are. This is a good name game.
• Alternative – group members can send the facilitator full face shots
and eyes-only shots of themselves. The facilitator can post these randomly on Flickr, a Wiki, 0r Facebook. Group members then attempt
to match the faces with the eyes.
• Safety – only first names should be used. Pictures should only be
head and eye shots.
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• Source: http://www.humankinetics.com/products/all−products/ ←Team−Building−Activities−for−the−Digital−Age−eBook
• Alternative: Jackie Gerstein
Community Puzzle
• Separate group into smaller groups.
• Explain – Your group is to use images from you cell phones to create
a group story. The story can be sequential where one cell phone
picture leads logically to the next. Cell phones and the pictures can
only be used once to tell the story. The logic and connection to be
obvious to the viewer with little or no need for verbal explanation.
• Source: Jackie Gerstein
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Values Photos
• Ask participants to choose their three top values. They can be given
a list of values.
• Give participants the task to locate objects in their environment that
symbolize these values and take a photo using their mobile devices.
• Photos with directions are directly emailed to a Flickr page set up for
this purpose. Lisa Nielson describes this process in her blog entry,
Using Flickr to Collect Images Captured on Cell Phones.
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Texting Gossip – Telephone
• Prior to the activity, choose a phrase (with fewer than 300 characters)
that has meaning to your group and translate it for text messaging (for
help, visit http://transl8it.com/cgi−win/index.pl). Make sure that all
participants have one another’s cell phone numbers stored in their
own phone’s memory.
• After arranging the group in a circle, text your message to the first
person (it helps to have the message already loaded into your phone).
The person who receives the text then whispers the message to the
next person in the circle. That person must then text the message to
the next person. Continue in this fashion (i.e., alternating texts and
whispers) until the last person receives the message via either text or
whisper. The last person then verbally shares the message with the
entire group.
• Example:
– Fear stops you in your tracks. Self confidence propels you forward. to Fear stops U n yor tracks. Self confidNc propels U
4ward.
• Discuss problems with texted gossip
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• Source: http://www.humankinetics.com/products/all−products/ ←Team−Building−Activities−for−the−Digital−Age−eBook
Human Machine
• Separate group into smaller groups – 4 to 8 per group.
• The group’s task is the create a human machine that has the following
attributes
– Two cell phones that are to be ”synchronized” in some manner
to make a sound
– One or two cell phones that create some type of visual effect for
the machine
– All group members need to be connected in some way.
– At least half the arms and half the legs of the group need to be
moving in some way.
– A group spokesperson needs to be able to explain the purpose
and function of the machine.
• Source: Jackie Gerstein
Two Truths and a Lie
• Each group members takes or locates (copyright free or creative commons) three images – two that represent ”facts” about them; one that
is plausible but really a ”lie”. These should be symbols rather than
portrait type shots . . . a favorite dog, a flower if likes gardening, a
country’s flag is from or visited that country.
• These are uploaded on a ”public” site such as Facebook, a Wiki, or
Flickr only with a brief caption. Remember that the goal is to fool
others so the third picture, the lie, needs to seem like a truth.
• Other members guess which one is the lie by leaving their guess in
the comment section.
• Safety: Only first names are used. No pictures of self, family member, or friends
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• Source: Jackie Gerstein
Building Communications
• The facilitator builds a prototype model using Legos or another building kit.
• Two or three volunteers act as the communicators. They have the
prototype in their location. The rest of the group is in a remote location. They have all the parts of the prototype but it needs to be built
as an exact replication of the prototype. The communicators either
text or voice chats with the group who must build the prototype based
on these directions.
• Two or three times during the building process – a ”runner” from the
building time can run over and view the original prototype.
• If the group struggles with the task, they can send an image to the
receiver.
• Pictures of ”results” can uploaded onto Facebook or a Website – and
placed side-by-side for comparison.
• Source: Jackie Gerstein
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Text a Group Story
â&#x20AC;˘ One person starts a story â&#x20AC;&#x201C; either a word, phrase, or sentence (can
be negotiated with the group or predetermined by the leader), and
texts this to the next group member who adds a word, phrase, or sentence. When it gets to the last person, s/he reads the story aloud.
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• If done virtually, the last person can post the story onto a wiki, website, or Facebook.
• Source: Jackie Gerstein
Memory
• Form smaller groups – 6 to 8 people per group.
• Group members choose an image or single word to display on each
of their cell phones.
• The phones are laid out on a table.
• The other groups are give a minute to memorize the images-words.
• The group that collectively remembers the most cell phone displays
wins.
• Each group is given a chance to display their cell phones.
• Source: Jackie Gerstein
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Pass the Task
• Smaller groups of 6 to 8 members are formed with equal number of
members per group.
• Give members some time to get the phone number of the person who
is ”next in line”.
• Group members are given slips of paper with tasks. Each smaller
group gets the same slips.
• The first person looks at his/her slip and texts the task to the next
person. The next person does the task, then looks at his/her slip, and
finally, texts this task to the next person.
• The first group to complete
• Tasks:
– Hop 10 times on one foot
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– Hum or whistle your favorite song.
– Shake hands or high five the next person in line.
– Do Head, Shoulder, Knees, Toes three times.
– Pat your head and rub your tummy
– Say Sally Sells Seashells at the Seashore three times
• Clarity in communication??
• Source: http://www.humankinetics.com/products/all−products/ ←Team−Building−Activities−for−the−Digital−Age−eBook
Spot the Difference
• This activity is like the Find the Eight (or so) Differences between
the two pictures.
• Group members take an original-first group picture. They then make
subtle changes – eight to ten of them – to the group. It could be
change of clothing, hair, background, etc.
• Each set of pictures is displayed via some sort of LCD. The other
groups are to identify the differences.
• Virtual – individuals can do this using their home setting – making
the eight alterations in the scene. The two images could then be
uploaded to Facebook or a wiki.
• Source: Jackie Gerstein
Reflections
• As a debrief for the day’s team building activities, ask participants to
go a take picture of something that represents that day’s events.
• Ask participants to use a song or ringtone to go with that image.
• Source: Jackie Gerstein
Texting or Facebook Feedback Students send their classmates via textbook or Facebook three adjectives
that describe their classmates’ performance during the class activities.
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Using Mobile Devices to Create a Personalized Feeling Chart
Students are introduced to the feelings cards by selecting the cards that
matched their feelings at that moment . . .
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In small groups, students select 10-15 feelings cards and set up scenarios
that represented each of feelings selected. They used their own mobile device to take photos of these images . . .
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The photos are directly uploaded to Flickr via an email. The full process is
described by Lisa Nielson in Using Flickr to Collect Images Captured on
Cell Phones.
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The uploaded images create a personalizedfeelings poster. Students are provided with scenarios and asked to locate on the Interactive White Board
which of these displayed images that they created best represented how they
would feel in that situation.
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Texting Communications Activity
This activity is an adaptation of theBack-to-Back Communications Exercise. Students pair up. One volunteered to give the directions, the other to
be the drawer. They exchange phone numbers and the drawers go to another room. The direction givers are provided with the following drawing
and told to text in words (one student asked if he could send a picture) the
description of the drawing. The goal was for the drawer to reproduce the
drawing to scale.
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Facilitating Learner Voice and Presence in
the Classroom Using Mobile Devices
I recently started another face-to-face class with undergraduates – about 3/4
of them in the 18-20 age group. I work towards a learner-centric classroom
based on the following principles:
1. Give learners multiple opportunities to be heard and seen through
multiple modalities – verbal, written, visual.
2. Get to know each learner as an individual – this is in line with my
belief of the educator as an ethnographer. Really see every learner
in the room.
3. Insure that the learners see one another as much as (or better yet more
than) the content and the teacher.
4. Provide ongoing opportunities to connect with the learners and for
them to connect with each other.
5. Use strategies, tools, and materials that the learners use outside of the
school
6. Make sure learners know that they are significant, important, that they
matter- see Angela Maiers You Matter.
7. Use learning activities that are engaging and authentic with the
knowledge that the learners are giving their time (and sometimes
money) to be in the learning environment. (I feel an obligation not
to ”steal” my learners time with activities that are boring, useless –
painful for them.)
As such, my first classes are always focused on having the students get to
know one another and building a sense of community. The only contentrelated activity during the first class is going over the syllabus which occurs
during hour 3 or 4 of the class – not the first activity.
Another one of my driving principles is continual improvement. I have
been an educator for a few decades but I am always looking for ways to
improve my courses. Mobile technologies have evolved to a point where
they can be leveraged in the class. What follows are the mobile activities
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I used in this course to get to know the learners, have them get to know one
another, and build a sense of community.
About Me
Students located a photo, song, or video from their mobile devices that best
represented them. Learners then shared their media and the reasons for their
selections.
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Every student had a mobile device with personal content on it. Even though
the majority of students were under 21, a few were in their 20s and two were
over 40 years old. Most students selected a photo to share, two selected
videos, and two shared a favorite song.
Values Photos
Students were asked to choose their most important 10 values from a list of
values. They were then asked to narrow their list to three values, their core
values. This was followed up with giving them the task of finding objects
around the school that symbolized these values. Once found, they took
pictures of the objects using their mobile devices and emailed the photos
directly to a Flickr page set up for this purpose. Lisa Nielson describes this
process in her blog entry, Using Flickr to Collect Images Captured on Cell
Phones.
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I can unequivocally say that there was close to 100% engagement by 100%
of the 16 students the entire 3 hours of this first class.
Guess Whose Eyes
My goal is to continue this engagement and connection outside of the classroom. A Facebook page has been established to have them post their class
reflections and for addition community building activities. For example,
I took photos of each studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eyes during the first class. These were
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posted on Facebook as Guess Whose Eyes â&#x20AC;&#x201C; students are already making
their guesses.
Facebook for Class Reflection
. . . and the reviews have begun to come in via their class reflections on
the course Facebook page.
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. . . a response.
This significance of this post cannot be understated. The young woman
who posted this is extremely shy and reserved (possibly has Aspergerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s syndrome). She told me at a break that she is not a people person.
Watching the magic occur during these learner-centric activities cannot be
understated. Seeing the engagement, smiles, connections happen during
class is why I am an educator.
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An Instructional Activity:
Student-Produced Viral Videos
I implemented my plan to have my undergraduates (mostly 18 to 20 year old
students) create ”viral” videos for one of our in-class activities. The first
part of this post is geared towards educators and administrators. It provides
a rationale for this type of learning activity. The second part describes the
characteristics that help define a viral video so that these attributes can be
presented to the students.
Young People’s Use of YouTube
The rationale for this activity is based on How Teens Use YouTube & Social
Media: The Online Generation Gap:
1. Teenagers today see online video as a normal every-day type of
activity. During middle school and high school years, YouTube is
always a hugely popular platform. Most teens consider it to be the
“normal” way of watching video (as opposed to television). Certain
YouTube videos would take the younger generation by storm; they’d
be talked about in the hallways of schools to even the dining table
at home. It’s just about impossible for teens to remember the days
before YouTube and other online video websites.
2. Teens Share More Videos Than The Older Generation. Teenagers
consume these videos as they would gossip and TV shows and magazines – whatever video makes an impression on them, they share.
3. Creating videos for this generation comes as naturally as creating
an essay in school. Teenagers are not only creative; they are very
impressionable. They express their findings in life both verbally and
visually, through all means of technology.
Encouraging Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, and
Creativity
Given these ”knowns”, asking teen and young adult students to produce
their own videos related on the content begin covered in class should facilitate an engaging and authentic learning activity. This learning activity also
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addresses some of the 21st Century Learning Skills: the 4 Cs – communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity – as proposed by Ken
Kay (via Edutopia) and the Partnership for 21st Century Learning. P21 &
FableVision collaborated to release an animated film about the 4 Cs:
Assignment – Producing a Viral Video
My young adult students will not be interested in any of the above information. This is provided for educators and administrators to gain an understanding regarding how and why integrating the production of videos can
enhance learning. They will be interest in the characteristics of what makes
a viral video.
• Make them laugh.. or cry. The best way to compel someone to
send a video to friends and family is to stir up emotion, whether it’s
laughing or crying. There are some common traits among the most
viral videos – ”music, dancing, attractive women, Candid Camerastyle pranks, children and topical and political references’ (Lauren
Dell).
• Keep it short and snappy. A video needs to be easily ”consumed by
a multitasking generation” – viewers shouldn’t have to watch a longform video to get the joke. ”Keep your clip or video short, interesting,
edgy and give us a surprise that makes us want to forward it to our
friends” (Lauren Dell).
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• Surprising Contrast. When we see two things that don’t normally
belong together, and someone finds a way to make them belong, the
reaction it creates is one of surprise. For example, Big guy with a
little voice; small girl with big voice - Do you remember the little
girl who sang opera on YouTube and how quickly her videos spread?
(Jim Chao)
• Three things every video should have:
– Authenticity
– Connection—humorous (The Annoying Orange), touching
(Transcending), or surprising (Susan Boyle).
– Visceral—We’re all really, REALLY busy.
Unless we’re
moved on a gut level, we won’t forward anything (L. Drew Gerber).
• Include one or more of the following as viral videos tend to include
these types of content:
– Pranks
– Dancing
– Music
– Children
– Political humor
– Song parodies
– Video blogs
– How to (Eric Olson)
In-Action
These suggestions were presented to my interpersonal communications students (18 to 20 years old) along with the desirable content – to demonstrate
via different types of nonverbal behavior as presented at Nonverbal Modes.
They worked on these in small groups during class time. Here is one example:
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The results are not that great as you can see but the students were engaged
(quite difficult with this particular class of young college students) and they
learned about nonverbal behaviors.
. . . and this parting shot of a short clip written and produced by my gifted
students from a few years back.
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Using Mobile Devices and Technology to
Enhance Emotional Intelligence
I often start my blogs with a rationale for how and why I teach the way I
do. Here are a few related to the activity I describe in this post.
1. Classroom activities should be authentic, engaging, and studentcentric. Students can learn the theory on their own time using the
textbook and media (PPTs, Slidehares, Videos). Face-to-face class
time should be spent on having students experience the concepts.
2. Classroom activities can and should be continually tweaked to reflect the current out-of-class environments, culture, and society-atlarge. Currently, I am asking myself, â&#x20AC;?How can I integrate the mobile devices that my young college students are using in their own
lives into our learning activities?â&#x20AC;?
3. Along with my goal of continuous improvement of learning activities
comes the desire and need for continuous reflection. I view it as an
informal type of action-research which includes my observations and
student written reactions to and reflections about the class activities.
The Activity: Using Mobile Devices to Create a Personalized Feeling
Chart
Students were introduced to the feelings cards by selecting the cards that
matched their feelings at that moment . . .
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In small groups, students selected 10-15 feelings cards and set up scenarios
that represented each of feelings selected. They used their own mobile
device to take photos of these images . . .
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The photos were directly upload to Flickr via an email. The full process
is described by Lisa Nielson in Using Flickr to Collect Images Captured on
Cell Phones.
As you can see the uploaded images created a personalizedfeelings
poster. Students were provided with scenarios and asked to locate on the
Interactive White Board which of these displayed images that they created
best represented how they would feel in that situation.
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Reflections
â&#x20AC;˘ This class meets once a week from 6 to 9:40 PM. Most of the students are within the 18-20 age group. Because it is an evening course
and many of the students work, they are tired when they come to
class. As I stated above, I do not use our time together to lecture. The
first half of this nightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s class was used doing some self-assessments
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and large group discussion. Student interest faded in and out with
some students being more actively involved in the discussions. The
activity described above was introduced about midway through the
class. The energy level of the students rose dramatically, all students engaged, all laughing, smiling and enjoying themselves and
what they were doing. Was it the small groups? The fun activity?
The use of their mobile devices to take photos? Seeing themselves
projected on the big screen?
• The second major observation – more of an ”aha” was related to
the devices the students were using. Most had cells phones, a few
had laptops. These students, as a group, are classified as lower income students. None of their devices had the capability to download
apps. What this says to me as the educator is that when I am designing activities that use the students own devices in my BYOD classroom, that they cannot include the use of apps. They have camera,
email, texting, internet capabilities, but no way to use apps. Interestingly, as I was thinking about this today, a related article was posted
on Edutopia Should We Be Concerned About an ”App Gap”? by
Audrey Watters.
• Students will be posting their reactions to this activity viaour class
Facebook Page this week. These will be added to this post,
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An Experiential, Mobile-Device Driven
Communications Exercise
This past week in my undergraduate interpersonal communications course, I
adapted the Bridge-Itcommunications exercise to incorporate my students’
(most ages 17-20) mobile devices. It combined some of my favorite instructional strategies:
• Experiential and Hands-On Learning
• Team Building and Problem-Solving Group Initiatives
• Using Mobile Devices in Educational Settings
Procedures
First. students were asked to line up in the classroom on a continuum from
those who believed they had the best, most effective communication (verbal
and listening) skills to those who thought they lacked those skills. They
counted off by three’s to form three groups. The top three self-reported
communicators were asked to be the communicators, the others were the
builders.
Next, groups were moved to separate rooms, given the same set of building
blocks and their task . . .
Build a three-dimensional structure using all the pieces provided. All three structures need to be exact in dimension and
in color patterns. The communicators can use their cell phones
via text and/or voice to communicate with the other groups.
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No time limits were set. When the teams believed they successfully completed the task, they could send pictures of their structures to one another.
Reflections
After the completion of the activity, reactions and reflections were posted
on a Voicethread slide using an image taken during the activity and quickly
uploaded to Voicethread.
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Comments included:
I loved doing this project! It was fun to get to know the class
and it was interesting to figure all of this out without being
in the same room with one another. We all worked very well
together after we figured out what we were doing.
The activity showed we all communicated very well. The best
way we were going to build our structure was to communicate
by one and to make sure we had everything in place. i learned
that communicating with good instructions will make it successful.
This activity showed how well we can communicate with each
other. I learned that we can communicate well if given proper
instructions that are detailed and precise.
Follow-Up
Next class students will be shown video clips of their participation in the
activity. Since the topic is on nonverbal communication, they will be asked
to text to Wifittiwhat the nonverbal behaviors they witnessed during each
of the clips.
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A Texting Communications Exercise
This is part of a continued series of blogs in which I reporting about and describing how I am adapting more tradition team building, communications,
and problem-solving to include learnersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; own mobile devices.
Part 1
This activity is an adaptation of theBack-to-Back Communications Exercise. Students found a partner. One volunteered to give the directions, the
other to be the drawer. They exchanged phone numbers and the drawers
went to another room. The direction givers were provided with the following drawing and told to text in words (one student asked if he could send
a picture) the description of the drawing. The goal was for the drawer to
reproduce the drawing to scale.
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Part 2
Students then met face-to-face to complete the exercise again using a second
picture.
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Reflection
After the two exercises, a discussion was facilitated that centered around
two questions:
1. Which of the two exercises produced the best results â&#x20AC;&#x201C; where the
original and reproduced images best replicated each other?
2. Which of the two exercises did you prefer?
For the first question, the results were split with about half saying the texting
produced the best results and the other half stating it was the face-to-face
directions. Those who selected texting described the ability to read through
the directions several times to insure correctness. Those who believed faceto-face produced better results described the use of body gestures to assist
with the results.
For the second question, all but one student preferred the face-to-face . . .
and all but one student is of the texting generation (18-20 years old).
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Studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Own Mobile Devices and Celly
Provide Peer Feedback
This is part of my continuing series of blogs where I am reporting how I am
integrating studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; own mobile devices into the classroom activities.
Using Celly
Celly was used for the learning activity that is described later in this blog.
Celly creates mini social networks called cells that connect you
with people and topics. A cell can contain anybody with a cellphone. We let you define filters based on hashtags, location,
time, and user identity. Celly lets you instantly group people
and topics into cells. Cells function as chatrooms where people communicate instantly via text-based messaging. Cells can
also include messages from the web or other social networks
to capture your interests.
Learn It in 5provides the following tutorial about how to set up and use
Celly.
Ways to use Celly at school can be found here.
Peer Feedback in an Interview Activity
Students in my undergraduate course on Interpersonal Relationships were
asked to practice their active listening skills. They conducted interviews
with each pair of interviewers-interviewees being observed by their classmates. Feedback to the interviewer was provided via Celly.
First they were provided with the following information to join the class
cell.
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The format for texting in their feedback was @interpersonal (cell) ”The
Feedback” #(person’s first name).
During the interviews, students texted their observations of the interviewer
behaviors to Celly.
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After each interview, the feedback was projected on the whiteboard. This
way students could view personal feedback, get ideas of appropriate interview behaviors, and analyze the quality of effective feedback.
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Flipped Classroom Full Picture: An
Example Lesson
The flipped classroom, as it is currently being described and publicized, is
simply recording the didactic content information via videos, having students view these as homework, and then using class time to further discuss
these ideas.
Harvard Professor Chris Dede stated in his Global Education 2011 keynote
in response to a question directed about the flipped classroom . . .
I think that the flipped classroom is an interesting idea if you
want to do learning that is largely based on presentation. You
use presentation outside of the classroom. Then you do your
understanding of the presentation and further steps from the
presentation inside the classroom. I think it is a step forward.
It is still, in my mind, the old person. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s still starting with presentational learning and then trying to sprinkle some learningby-doing on top of it. I am interested more in moving beyond
the flipped classroom to learning by doing at the center than
a kind of the intermediate step that still centers on largely on
tacit assimilation.
As I describe in The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture, I believe, as
Chris Dede does, that the problem with the flipped classroom is that the
major focus is on the didactic presentation of information, that it is still at
the center of the learning experience. The flipped classroom, given that
is currently getting so much press, provides an opportunity to change the
paradigm of learning, whereby learningâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;by-doing, the experiences along
with the understanding and application of those experiences become core
to the learning process.
The following lesson describes a type of flipped classroom. This lesson
did not center around the content media, in this case the Slideshare, but
on the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; personal experiences, interactions with other students, and
acquisition of tangible life skills.
Interpersonal Communications: Listening Skills
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Experiential Engagement: The Activity
The cycle often begins with an experiential exercise. This is an authentic,
often hands-on learning activity that fully engages the student. It is a concrete experience that calls for attention by most, if not all, the senses. They
become hooked through personal connection to the experience and desire to
create meaning for and about that experience (ala constructivist learning).
For this lesson, the learners started off with the Lighthouse activity, where
in partner teams, the sited person led his or her blindfolded partner through a
series of obstacles. The goal of this part of the lesson was to provide an experience that overtly demonstrated the importance of listening â&#x20AC;&#x201C; especially
when the sense of sight is taken away.
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56
Conceptual Connections: The What
Learners are exposed to and learn concepts touched upon during Experiential Engagement. They explore what the experts have to say about the
topic. Information is presented via video lecture, content-rich websites
and simulations like PHET and/or online text/readings. In the case of the
flipped classroom as it is being currently discussed, this is the time in the
learning cycle when the learners view content-rich videos. The videos support the experiential learning rather than being at the center of the learning
experience.
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In this lesson, the learners were asked to view and review the following
slideshare via their own computer terminals.
The benefit of this form of personalized viewing is that the learners have
control of the media so they can view it at their own pace â&#x20AC;&#x201C; spending more
time on the concepts they need to further review or of which have special,
personal interest. Use of their own computers also permit them to search
for more information about a given topic.
Meaning Making: The So What
Learners reflect on their understanding of what was discovered during the
previous phases. It is a phase of deep reflection on what was experienced
during the first phase and what was learned via the experts during the second phase. Learners can articulate and construct their understanding of the
content or topic being covered through written blogs or verbal-based audio
or video recordings.
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For this lesson, the learners made a personal connection with the content as
they were asked to identify the 10 listening skills they believed they needed
to further develop. This also became a technology-enhanced lesson. Learners made a mind map of their identified 10 skills that included: (1) the skill,
(2) normal and current behaviors associated with the skill, and (3) goals and
steps for improvement.
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Demonstration and Application: The Now What
During this phase, learners get to demonstrate what they learned and
apply the material in a way that makes sense to them. This goes beyond reflection and personal understanding in that learners have to create something that is individualized and extends beyond the lesson with
applicability to the learners’ everyday lives. This is in line with the
highest level of learning within Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy of Learning – Creating- whereby the learner creates a new product or point of
view. In essence, they become the storytellers of their learning (See
Narratives in the 21st Century: Narratives in Search of Contexts). A list
of technology-enhanced ideas/options for the celebration of learning can
be found at: http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2010/09/09/ ←a−technology−enhanced−celebration−of−learning/
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Part One
The learners practiced their active listening skills during class time. Feedback was provided to the listener via their mobile devices using Celly. See
the full description at Studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Own Mobile Devices and Celly Provide
Peer Feedback.
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Part Two
The learners located a professional in their area of study to interview. Their
interview questions focused on the communication skills expected of those
in that profession. Their homework was driven by real-life experiences going out to speak with a professionals in their communities. Homework was
designed to further promote the applicability, transferability, and relevancy
of this lesson.
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Every Educator Has a Story . . . Just Tell It.
This is one of my favorite cartoons ever.
The ”punch” line is that every person on the planet has a story to tell. I also
know that every teacher story to tell.
Educators are doing amazing things with their learners in spite (i.e., to show
spite toward) of the standards-based and accountability-driven movements.
I’ve learned about so many exciting learning activities from educators who
are publicizing their great projects via Twitter, Facebook, and Blogs. I’ve
read about global collaborations, interesting ways technology is being integrated into the classroom, kids making a difference in their communities,
and great project-based learning.
This is my own call to action for educators to tell their stories of those rich
and amazing things they are doing in their classrooms.
• Write a blog.
• Tweet about it.
• Make photo essays and upload to a photo sharing site like Flickr.
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• Take some video footage and share it on YouTube, TeacherTube, or
Vimeo.
• Ask learner to blog about it.
• Share on Facebook.
• Give virtual presentations at conferences such as Global Education
and K12 Online.
• Ask local reporters to come to your classroom
• Others? (Please add to list.)
For example, I am incorporating students’ mobile devices into an undergraduate course on Interpersonal Relationships. I take photos during each
class and that day write a blog entry about mobile learning. These entries
take about an hour.
• Facilitating Learner Voice and Presence in the Classroom Using Mobile Devices
• An Instructional Activity: Student-Produced Viral Videos
• Using Mobile Devices and Technology to Enhance Emotional Intelligence
• An Experiential, Mobile-Device Driven Communications Exercise
• A Texting Communications Exercise
• Students’ Own Mobile Devices and Celly Provide Peer Feedback
I now have a record/reflection about the class. I get to share it with others
via Facebook and Twitter.
If all educators publicized the accomplishments they had in their classrooms
using technology, hands-on activities, global collaborations, project-based
learning; then an informal qualitative research project would result. When
educators are asked to provide evidence of efficacy to administrators, parents, other educators, funding sources, they could share these success stories. This aggregate would become the collective narrative – story of education of our times in the beginnings of the 21st century.
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Win As Much As You Can Mobile Edition
Win As Much As You Can is a popular negotiation game
based on the Prisoner’s Dilemma problem (Axelrod 2006). In
one version players are grouped into four teams and asked to
play an X or Y over a series of rounds. The object is to score
as many points as possible. If everyone in the group chooses
X, then everyone loses points. If all choose Y, everyone scores
points. If there is a mixture of X’s and Y’s, those that played X
get more points and those that played Y get fewer points. Discussion is not allowed except during three bonus rounds, when
players may discuss how they will play the next round.
Many assumptions are embedded in this deceptively simple
and powerful game, developed to illustrate economic principles from game theory. The most obvious is the use of a
“game” to introduce many of the fundamental themes and concepts of negotiation theory. These include the tension between
creating and claiming value, individual versus joint gain, trust,
concessions, attributions, ethics, and multi-round negotiations.
The sports or game metaphor and the “game,” with its title
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commanding the player to “win as much as you can” reflect the
values of self-interest and personal aggrandizement. The title,
score-sheet and rules of the game also suggest a “fixed pie,”
leading to the assumption that there is no room for integrative
bargaining. The game, however, is more complex than that,
as players discover that single-minded pursuit of self-interest
can backfire, and that a relationship between personal gain and
joint welfare exists, particularly when there will be a continuing relationship. The title and rules suggest that conflict may
lie ahead [and almost always does result]. Cultural Baggage
When You “Win As Much As You Can” Julia Ann Gold
Mobile Edition
The mobile edition is appropriate for upper level High School students and
college students. In the mobile edition, students form in four subgroups
as in the original game. One member from each group becomes the designated voter using his or her mobile device to post his or her team’s response. Votes are made through texting into Celly (a free group texting
service) their X or Y vote along with the round number using a hashtag
to denote the round. The results of each round are projected to the entire
group so they can view all teams’ votes.
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The individual groups make their selections and votes with no communications with the other groups except in three of the rounds. Three different
forms of inter-group communications are permitted during rounds 3, 5, and
6 with payoff results increased during those rounds.
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â&#x20AC;˘ Round 3: Groups are invited to text to any other group any message of their choice. As such groups are asked to exchange phones
numbers prior to the game.
â&#x20AC;˘ Round 5: During this round, the teams can text message any communications they want to make to the other groups through Celly which
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are projected to the entire group.
â&#x20AC;˘ Round 6: Groups can communicate directly with one another.
.
Reflection of Win As Much As You Can occurs through a VoiceThread set
up for that purpose, and through group discussion.
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A Technology-Enhanced Lesson on
Conflict
This lesson was done with undergraduates, ages 18-20. As you can see by
the lesson, the driving pedagogical tenets are:
• Experiential and authentic learning.
• The use of technology to increase student engagement and motivation.
• A focus on student-centric learning with the teacher only providing
directions as to how to complete the experiential activities.
• Students interacting with each other and the content much more than
the teacher.
The Goals:
• Define conflict.
• Describe differences between destructive and constructive approaches to managing conflict.
• Identify and describe win-lose and win-win negotiation strategies.
• Identify and use conflict management skills to help manage emotions,
information, goals, and problems when attempting to resolve interpersonal differences.
Define Conflict
Students are given the following directions:
Write the word conflict in the center of a blank piece of paper
and draw a circle around it. Quickly jot down all the words
and phrases you associate with the word conflict by arranging
them around your circle.
Review your list of associations and categorize them as positive, negative, or neutral. Count the total number of positive,
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negative, and neutral associations, and calculate the percentages that are positive, negative, and neutral. Did you have more
than 90% positive? Did you have more than 90% negative?
What do your associations with the word conflict indicate
about your views about conflict and your approach to conflict?
Following a discussion of the positive and negative aspects, students are
asked to complete the following tasks:
• Reduce your list to four words.
• Find a partner, reduce that list to four words.
• Join another partner team ��� reduce the list to four words.
• Go to Visual Thesaurus – http://www.visualthesaurus.com/ get definitions for each of the four words
• Create a web on the white board that includes your group’s four words
and key words associated with those main words.
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Escalating and Deescalating Conflict Situations
Students are presented with the following scenarios and compose two responses for each, one that would escalate the conflict, and two, another that
would deescalate the conflict.
They are invited to use their own laptops to compose their responses. They
find partners, who reads and finds the comments composed by their partner
to share with the rest of the class.
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Conflict Resolution Techniques
Through a brief Powerpoint presentation, students are introduced to the following conflict resolution techniques:
• Abandoning
• Getting Help
• Humor
• Postponing
• Compromise
• Integrating
• Collaborate/Problem-Solve
To practice using these strategies, students write a Dear Abby letter that describes a conflict they are currently or have experienced in their lives. These
are composed on Primary Pad. Their individual links are emailed to the
teacher. These links are shared with the entire class one at a time so the
other students can make recommendations for resolving the conflict based
on the strategies above.
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Win As Much As You Can Negotiation Strategies
A separate blog post describes this activity â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Win As Much As You Can
Mobile Edition
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Personal Goal Development – Motivational Posters
Finally, students make goals for improving their conflict resolution
skills by creating a motivational poster using the Big Hub Motivational
Posters. These are uploaded to a Google Presentation to create a class
aggregate of motivation posters.’
[googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”present/embed”
query=”id=ddcqbr4n_22gpcf2bht&size=m” width=”555” height=”451” /]
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A End-of-Course Student Survey: The Use
of Mobile Devices for Class Activities
Preface
As is true for many of us using educational technology in the classroom,
we are experimenting with how technology can enhance the learning experiences of our students. Sometimes we have failures, often times we
have successes. Yet, in this age of evidenced-based education, educators,
administrators, and other decision-makers are depending on and using the
data gleamed from large studies often completed by companies with vested
interests, e.g. Gates Foundation, book publishers, and testing companies.
Educators can easily conductaction research about the practices they are
using in their own classrooms especially given the ease of creating online
surveys and data collection methods. Yet, it seems that it is rarely done.
For example, I introduced Quest Atlantis into my gifted classes a few years
ago and asked these 3rd through 5th graders to complete a survey to assess its efficacy from the student perspective. The results I received were
rich and informative. The kids offered great feedback, ideas, and suggestions. See Beyond the Game: Quest Atlantis as an Online Learning
Experience for Gifted Elementary Students.
So if educators want to influence what occurs in not only their own classrooms, but in the classrooms of their co-teachers, then they need to invest
the time and energy to demonstrate best practices. In a related blog, I discuss Every Educator Has a Story . . . Just Tell It.
End-of-Course Survey
The Interpersonal Relations course was offered during Fall, 2011. There
were 12 students in the course â&#x20AC;&#x201C; five were male, 7 were female; ten of the
students were 18 to 20 years old, one was 25 years old, and the oldest student
was a female in her 50s.
The first section of the survey listed all of the class activities that used the
studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; cell phones. I blogged about the individual activities. The
archive of these blog posts can be found at User-Generated Education
tagged with mobile learning.
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Obviously the sample size is small, but I was excited to find that most of
the students found most of the activities of some value and that only one
student found one of the activities a waste of time.
I also asked a series of open ended questions . . .
Favorite and Least Favorite Activities?
These were all over the map with no general consensus.
What was the greatest advantage of using studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; mobile phones to get to
know one another and build a sense of community in the class?
The responses centered around being able to use the devices they used outside of the class,
It was something that we use everyday so it related back to us.
It was something they were familar with.
The students use their phones on a regular basis.
. . . and that their devices helped to create an environment of sharing,
friendliness
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It provided us with a common ground on which to get to know
each other.
We got to talk to each other outside of class, not just when we
were in class.
We were able to communicate outside of class and create
friendships.
You got to know the people better though them.
To get a better experience from the class and enjoy coming to
class.
What was the biggest problems in using students’ mobile devices during
class time?
As was expected, most of the student responses centered around them being
a distraction.
People would abuse it and text friends and do other things that
the activity wasn’t for.
The students were tempted to use the phones for personal use.
Sometimes people weren’t always doing what they were supposed to be doing.
Students had more of a chance to get distracted.
Some people texted when they should have been participating.
(Note: I had to implement a device away strategy, when I had to ask students, often several times, to put their devices away when we weren’t using
them for class activities.)
A few mentioned service problems.
Some didn’t work.
The service was bad because i would send a text and it would
show up ten minuets later.
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What recommendations would you make to improve the use of studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;
mobile devices for class activities and community-building?
Most of the students stated, â&#x20AC;?None.â&#x20AC;?
There are none everything is A Okay.
Interestingly, two mentioned having laptops available for all students.
Change the moblie devices into personal laptops provided by
the school.
Have computers for each student.
Next week, I begin this course again with a new group of students. I will
continue to test out the mobile learning activities and get student feedback
about them.
Thanks Fall, 2011, students!
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Index
A
action research, 78
N
networked learning, 3, 72
B
BYOD, 29, 35, 46, 54, 66, 72, 78
P
professional development, 54
C
collaboration, 29
community-building, 23
S
school reform, 3, 54, 64, 78
social learning, 23, 29
social networking, 23, 50
student voice, 23, 29, 46, 50
D
disrupting education, 29, 64
E
Education, 1, 64
educational reform, 3, 23, 29, 35,
64
emerging technologies, 1
experiential learning, 35, 41, 46,
50, 54, 66, 72
T
team building, 41
technology integration, 1, 29, 35,
41, 46, 50, 72
F
flipped classroom, 54
Y
youtube, 29
G
game-based learning, 3, 23, 41,
66
group initiatives, 41
M
mobile learning, 1, 3, 23, 29, 35,
41, 46, 50, 64, 66, 78
82
V
video production, 29